Weather News

More Flooding Problems for the South

January 17, 2013; 10:35 AM

The last in a train of storms will unload drenching rain and cause additional flooding problems in part of the South into Thursday night.

Some locations from eastern Tennessee to the Carolina mountains have received close to half a foot of rain thus far from at least two storm systems this week. Many areas surrounding this zone have picked up over 3 inches of rain in as many days.

The saturated ground will not hold onto the rain, but rather release in the form of flash, urban and small-stream flooding. Some neighborhoods in towns and cities will take on water, while country roads along small streams may be damaged or blocked by flooding.

With a lack of foliage this time of the year and the terrain, mudslides and debris flows are also a possibility.

In the past several days the list of cities that have received close to or over 6 inches of rain include Bristol, Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn.

Aside from the dangers of flooding, some beneficial rain will fall on needy areas from southeastern Alabama to Georgia and central areas of the Carolinas and parts of Virginia.

Rain is not the end run of the series of storms. A major snowstorm will occur as colder air invades the caboose in the train. Heavy snow will fall on some locations that have or will experience flooding.

The heaviest snow will fall over the southern Appalachians, but accumulating snow will also spread from portions of northern and central Mississippi to northern Alabama, northern Georgia, eastern and middle Tennessee, upstate South Carolina, northern and western North Carolina, southeastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, much of Virginia, much of the Delmarva Peninsula and southern New Jersey.